


Crash and Burn

by Lusa



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: X-wing Series - Aaron Allston & Michael Stackpole, Torchwood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-15
Updated: 2010-09-15
Packaged: 2017-10-11 21:13:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/117188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lusa/pseuds/Lusa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You realize this is entirely your fault," Is the first thing Jack hears as he bounds out of the SUV, gun in hand, ready for anything, and it gives him a tiny bit of hope. Hostile aliens bent on taking over the earth don't usually bicker like that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Crash and Burn

**Author's Note:**

> Originally this was going to be an Iron Fist fix and lots of fun shenanigans and sarcastic banter would ensue except that didn't happen. Admit it, though, Wraiths + Torchwood would equal amazing.

"You realize this is entirely your fault," Is the first thing Jack hears as he bounds out of the SUV, gun in hand, ready for anything, and it gives him a tiny bit of hope. Hostile aliens bent on taking over the earth don't usually bicker like that.

"In what way is the fact that my fighter blew up and crashed on top of me my fault? Oh wait, I remember now, it's not."

By this time the rest of the team has made it out of the car as well, except for Tosh back in the Hub monitoring the Rift spike they'd tracked to this street corner and he catches sight of the alien threat of the hour, which turns out to just be two men, one with a massive collection of truly painful looking burn scars crawling across his face who eyes them critically as they approach, and a second one curled on the ground in pain. Jack can't get a good look at his face, but what skin he can see is pale and slick with sweat, and he's shaking a bit. His sarcasm seems unaffected by it all, though, which is inspiring. He also musters enough energy to kick the one with the scars in the shins when he raises his hands in a gesture of surrender.

"This is why you have no friends." The one with the scars mutters at him before giving them the most charming, trust-worthy sort of smile Jack has ever seen. "They're good guys; they have a very honest sort of walk." Which makes no sense even after he explains about being an actor who specializes in reading body language. But it does make the explanation of who Torchwood is and how they ended up here go easier. Usually the aliens the Rift dumps on them turn out to be highly unreasonable, or the occasional psychotic time traveling ex-boyfriend from the future. By their usual standards this night is going quite well.

"I'm Face," Says the one with the scars, and as nicknames go Jack figures it's a bit simple but to the point. "That's Ton Phanan, only we're undercover so don't tell anyone." He's never met anyone who goes undercover so conspicuously.

"You know what would be fun?" Phanan slurs from his spot on the ground, sounding like passing out is somewhere in his near future, "Going to a hospital. I bet that would be really fun."

At a nod from Jack Face moves to help him up, but then they finally get a good look at him and every gun immediately available is aimed at him once more. The entire left half of his face has been replaced with harsh metal plating complete with an ominous glowing red eye, and it's impossible not to be reminded of Lisa. He glances at Ianto and catches a glimpse of raw, painful memories before he slides his usual bland expression back into place like armor. Phanan just quirks his remaining eyebrow at the guns aimed his way and suggests, "Shoot someone else; I'm running out of body parts."

"Cybermen have started programming in a sense of humor now, have they?" Owen asks skeptically, but there's a real question underneath it.

"Oh, that's a fun new slur. I like it. It's not nearly as degrading as it could be though." Phanan remarks. "I'll stick with 'cyborg' for now though, thank you."

"They're prosthetics." Face interjects, clearly having figured out what is bothering them even though he has no way of knowing the why. "No need to panic, he's just a poor harmless cripple with half a face and some metal limbs."

"And internal organs. People always leave those out, but I like them. Can we stop being suspicious and go now? I'm getting bored."

Its not enough information, and Jack knows there's going to be an interrogation once they get back to the Hub but right now it comes down to the choice to let a man who might be innocent die or not. Because he clearly is dying, or he will be soon if they don't move fast. Jack knows that look, the awkward position of the body to accommodate internal injuries, the harsh catch of that voice. And, because in the end he's not nearly as heartless as he tries to seem, he nods and holsters his gun and then it's all a flurry of movement as everyone suddenly makes themselves busy.

It takes an agonizingly long time to get Phanan loaded into the back seat of the SUV because he doubles over in pain when Face helps him stand and bites back a scream with every step but they get him there eventually where he informs Owen, "Lots of internal bleeding, some broken ribs and I think I've done something to a kidney. I'm a doctor." Before passing out in the back seat. Jack wonders what it is that makes doctors who work in top-secret organizations so sarcastic. The rest of the team squeezes in around him, and Face pulls his head to rest on his lap with an extremely protective, anxious expression. Jack can't figure out if they're sleeping together or just two halves of a supremely talented and vaguely annoying comedic duo. He drives faster than is strictly legal, and lets Owen take over once they reach the Hub.

It's a whole new argument to get Face to stop hovering and let their doctor do his job, but eventually Jack herds him into the conference room through a combination of bullying and promises of coffee from Ianto. Tosh offers to start working to predict the next Rift spike that could take the two of them home but there is clearly no point in trying yet when anyone can see it's going to take days for Phanan to recover from surgery if he lives at all.

Their guest or hostage or whatever he is slumps when they finally do get him to stop fidgeting and pacing and just sit down. He looks like he hasn't slept in about two days, and won't answer any questions about what the two of them were doing before being pulled through the Rift. "No, really, it actually is top-secret." He insists to most questions, still charming but with an edge of exhaustion and worry now.

They do get a few basic facts out of him, though it's hard to tell if they are true or not. Apparently he's a former teen idol movie star turned some sort of super spy commando, which, Jack admits, is no more ridiculous than his own story but still hard to take seriously. Face talks a lot without saying anything, perfectly charming, funny, full of good stories that don't give anything away. They don't get much real out of him, even though Gwen wears her most empathetic expression and Ianto makes some truly supreme coffee. They even explain a bit about Torchwood, which is more information than most people get.

Eventually even stories about slime creatures and alien sex gas run out and Owen still hasn't finished working. Face sighs a very quiet little sigh as though he's getting tired of being brave, and buries his face in his hands. Almost immediately he springs back up, all energy once more with an annoyed frown as he pokes at his skin. "Well that explains the looks. Really, one of you couldn't have managed an insensitive remark sooner to remind me I was wearing this?"

And, just like that, he starts peeling his face off. Alright, just the scars to be specific, and after a moment it sinks in with Jack that it's stage make-up. A disguise. A few more tugs and the pile of artificial skin lies in a faintly disgusting pile of putty on the table and Jack finds his most flirtatious smile creeping across his lips as he catches sight of what Face actually looks like for the first time. There's still a scar there, and a truly nasty one at that, slicing its way diagonally across the center of his face but other than that? 'Gorgeous' is sort of an understatement, he decides, but it's the one he is going to stick with for the time being. Suddenly the movie star story seems a lot more plausible. In the back of his mind he starts toying with the idea of a threesome and wonders how much persuading it would take to get Face to agree. Or Ianto, for that matter. Not a lot for either of them, he thinks with a private smile.

Face looks a little smug, and takes a bow even though he's still sitting down. Jack's the first to offer up a laugh and some mock applause, because why the hell not humor the handsome spy who clearly needs this day to get better?

***

Phanan wakes up too soon after Owen finally finishes the surgery. With 20% of his body mass mechanical it's hard to calculate medication doses, and there's a bit of panic before Owen figures out where his math went wrong and knocks him out again. The cyborg is too groggy to say anything coherent before he passes out, but Jack catches the look in his remaining eye before it flickers shut and he's rocked by the expression there because he's seen it on his own face so many times. Not suicidal, exactly, just a private wish, a thought that he is just so tired of getting dragged back into life. In Jack's case it is the inability to die, the painful jerk of waking up from the darkness time and time again, gasping for air and desperate to get that momentary peace back. As for Phanan, barely thirty and how many life saving surgeries has he had? How many times has he had another piece of himself, of his humanity cut away and replaced by a machine to keep him alive? For the first time all night Jack wonders if Phanan deliberately sought out the blast that brought his ship down. For all Face's abilities to read body language and tones of voice and get people to talk he doubts he has any idea how badly his partner or friend or whatever they are to each other wants to die.

It ends up not mattering; Phanan doesn't wake up again. His death is nothing dramatic, with no stirring last words. He just slips off with Face sitting there holding his hand and looking like he's the one whose dying. When they retreat back to the main Hub to give him some privacy Jack thinks he can hear the sound of quiet, choked tears. Between a caustically sarcastic mostly mechanical doctor and a star adored by every pre-teen girl in the universe neither of them can have had many friends in their lives.

Owen won't be able to go get drunk tonight, what with being dead now, and everyone can see he's pissed about it, and not just from the way he snaps at Tosh when she offers sympathy. He also describes Phanan's internal organs as having been smushed, which isn't the technical term for it at all but sort of gets his point across.

They offer to let Face take the body back with him, when he catches the next Rift spike home but he shakes his head and says he promised to destroy it anyways. Too easy to identify and blow their cover, whatever that is. He leaves with a face like a thundercloud and Jack almost feels bad for whoever was responsible for all this because they are clearly about to be righteously annihilated.

He barely manages to wait until the others have gone home before dragging Ianto to bed and pretending sex helps make the events of the day hurt less. It doesn't, but it makes him glad he's not the one left alone this time.


End file.
